Still without forward Kevin Durant but with another stellar performance from point guard Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers 110-99 and went 3-0 up in the NBA Western Conference finals.
The current champions were thus only one victory away from sealing their pass to the Finals, where they hope to be able to count on Durant, their top scorer who is injured, as well as the post DeMarcus Cousins, also in the recovery phase.
Curry, who started the game with a 35.3 scoring average in the series, finished with a whopping 36 points, 18 of them the product of six triples, also adding six rebounds and three assists.
The star canastero was not alone in the visiting attack, since power forward Draymond Green finished with a ‘triple-double’ of 20 cards, 13 rebounds and 12 assists and guard Klay Thompson added another 19 points and applied stellar defense in key moments.
“All my teammates, my coaches have been telling me, ‘Draymond, go to the hole, be aggressive,'” Green explained. “We have guys out there, Steph, Klay and those guys that get a lot of attention, so it’s up to me to do my job and deliver.”
The Trail Blazers, who were 18 points ahead on the scoreboard in the second quarter, are on the brink: of the 135 times an NBA team has been down in a best-of-seven series, in none has managed to come back, and only three times was a seventh game forced.
The best of Portland was again guard CJ McCollum, with 23 points, while Meyers Leonard, surprising starting post, contributed 16 with three triples included.
Game four will be Monday, again in Portland, where the defending champs can complete a sweep.
With its third victory in a row, Golden State faces its fifth consecutive final, although in the third game it repeated the sin of the previous two, starting badly and being forced to come back.
After a first quarter of give and take, the Blazers finished up 29-27, led by eight points from star Damian Lillard, who couldn’t sustain his good start in the remaining three quarters and finished with 19 points in a poor series. out of five out of 18 in the shot.
Dominating the rebound in the first half, Portland reached the break up 66-53 thanks to a combined 35 points from Leonard, McCollum and Lillard.
For Golden State, Curry and Green added 29 between them, while forward Andre Iguodala, Durant’s replacement, suffered physical problems.
“Few players in the league can affect defense and offense like Green,” Warriors manager Steve Kerr said.
– ‘Warrior’ blast –
However, after trailing by as much as 13 points early in the third quarter, the Warriors had an offense that ended with Jordan Bell’s basket and two free throws by Curry to get back into the game and get closer to 76-73.
Seconds later, Kevin Looney hit a shot from Green’s assist to put Golden State up 77-76 for the first time with less than two minutes left in that period, which ended with an 82-79 road advantage.
In the fourth, with less than five minutes to play, Curry hit a long-range shot to increase the Warriors’ lead 100-89.
A few seconds before the end of the game and after a spectacular block from Thompson, two free throws from Green and two more from Curry sealed the score and left the defending champions on the verge of mating.
Golden State has played in the last four Finals and has won three (2015, 2017 and 2018).
The winner of this series goes against the winner of the Eastern Conference final between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Toronto Raptors, which favors the first 2-0.
On Sunday the third game between Milwaukee and Toronto will be played at the home of the Canadian team. afp